As LeBron James continues to get older, the Los Angeles Lakers have tried to ease the burden on him when it comes to ball-handling and playmaking, and one player who has helped with that is Austin Reaves.
Reaves has improved in each of his three seasons with the Lakers, and with that, his usage rate has also increased. He went from 12.4 in his rookie season to 16.1 in his second year and then 20.3 this past season.
Now under new head coach JJ Redick, it appears that Redick is headed for more responsibility. Redick recently spoke on how excited he is to coach Reaves, who is a dream for any coach. With that, Reaves’ usage rate is expected to increase again in 2024-25, per Dan Woike of the L.A. Times:
Some of the indication coming out of the Lakers’ facility this summer is that Reaves is in line for a big opportunity this season, with another uptick in usage headed his way.
The Lakers have put together a roster with a number of ball-handlers, including James, Reaves, D’Angelo Russell, Gabe Vincent, Jalen Hood-Schifino and Bronny James.
Coming off a summer in which LeBron played in the Olympics, the Lakers will want to keep him fresh in the regular season. That puts more pressure on guys like Reaves and Russell to bring in on a nightly basis, but that is certainly a challenge that they will be up for.
Quincy Olivari: Austin Reaves has stood out during Lakers workouts
Austin Reaves seeing an uptick in usage this season makes sense, especially if his game takes another step forward. And it appears that will be the case as rookie Quincy Olivari recently spoke with Lakers Nation about offseason workouts at the facility and revealed that Reaves has stood out the most to him.
“My first day, I would say for the first time we did fives where it was kind of more controlled… Austin Reaves is really, really good at basketball,” Olivari said. “It’s just different when you’re out there, how smart he is, how he can just bait you into certain things, certain passes he makes, him in the pick-and-roll. I was like ‘Dawg, I can’t wait to learn from him.’ I mean, everybody is out there doing well, but I remember I was just like yeah, Austin Reaves, he’s really good.”
Reaves has always been known as a hard worker, so Olivari’s comments didn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
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